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Emmett Carson

Time for the second and last character appearing in The Cell, one of the latest episodes of The Walking Dead. While following Daryl Dixon in his prison tour, we meet the doctor who takes care of him to prevent him from dying due to the “special treatment” he’s been subjected to…and the name is quite familiar, as he’s credited as Emmett Carson, portrayed by Tim Parati. It’s not by chance that his surname is the same as Hilltop Colony‘s doctor, as the two of them are brothers; in the comics, this Carson never receives a birth name, but as declared by Robert Kirkman in an interview we can assume that the name revealed in the tv series is the same as his comics’ counterpart’s. Surely, the show version looks a lot older than in the original material…and if everything follows the same route, he’ll have quite an important role in the story to follow. Let’s see together.

As usual, not much is known about Emmett Carson’s early life: he lived somewhere in Virginia, and he grew up with his older brother Harlan. While the latter was a doctor, it’s unknown what Emmett’s job was, but we know that, despite loving his brother and having a normal sibling relationship with him, he suffered from a light inferiority complex towards Harlan. The two lived together, and during the Outbreak, when the dead started to rise to feed on the flesh of the living, they both managed to survive, and they started wandering around the country looking for a shelter. Eventually the two of them arrived to a big settlement, called Hilltop Colony, built around a XIX Century colonial villa: the leader of Hilltop was an opportunist and slimy man, Gregory, who, upon understanding Harlan was a medical doctor, immediately welcomed both Carson brothers to Hilltop. The siblings lived together for a couple of years in the colony, and Emmett proved to be just as useful as Harlan: smart, resourceful, cunning, he was the man with a solution for every problem. Well, almost every problem: when Hilltop Colony became the target of a bigger and better armed group, The Saviors, there was nothing even he could do to protect his people. The Saviors came to Hilltop with the same offer they made to every other community they had visited: “protection” in exchange of half of everything the colony produced…or face destruction. A man as coward as Gregory immediately offered cooperation to The Saviors, but he underestimated the “half” requested by their leader Negan: upon inspecting Hilltop’s resources, Negan became quite intrigued by the young Carson, realising just how smart and useful he was. As well as many other things, Negan demanded to take Emmett along as well: before getting his people into trouble, Carson agreed to follow him, and he abandoned Hilltop and his brother to follow The Saviors. This was the beginning of a new life for Carson, who (was) moved to The Sanctuary, Negan’s home and The Saviors’ headquarter.

In The Sanctuary, Carson did his best to prove how useful he could be, and his efforts almost immediately paid off, as the eccentric Negan liked his style. He became in a short time one of Negan’s most trusted advisors, and he was also the one in charge of the Iron Punishment, one of Negan’s sadistic ways of keeping control of his men: anybody breaking his rules (mostly the ones caught with one of his women) were marked with a white-hot iron on the face, so that he could be an example for all the others (a second transgression would have been punished with death, obviously). He attended the punishment of Dwight, Negan’s right-hand man, who had slept with his wife Sherry, who now belonged to Negan; he did the same with Mark, a boy who had fallen in love with another one of Negan’s wives, Amber. He took care of organising The Saviors during the uprising of one of the subjected colonies, Alexandria Safe-Zone, but then something unexpected happened: a group of Saviors captured one of the enemies’ main men, Eugene Porter, but while Dwight was questioning him, Carson overheard him saying that he was secretly on his side, as he wanted to bring down Negan. This was a turning point for Emmett, as he now had actually a chance: as good as his life in The Sanctuary could be, with all the privileges Negan accorded to him, Carson still missed his brother and, most of all, his freedom. He confronted Dwight with his knowledge, but he informed him that he would have followed him in his rebellion…and that there were many other Saviors who would have been willing to do the same. Emmett joined Dwight’s rogue faction, and he spent the whole day collecting others who, like him, secretly hated Negan’s tyranny, first of all the ones he had subjected to the Iron Punishment. Later that night, using his influence and connections, Emmett guided Dwight, Eugene and the others he had gathered outside The Sanctuary, ready to join The Militia, the alliance of communities who wanted to challenge Negan: it was time he earned his freedom by fighting for it.

Emmett Carson is a cunning and smart man, able to think straight even during emergencies, always analyzing coldly any situation and sorting out a solution. More a man of brain than of brawn, he rarely takes action, but he’s trained to use guns and knives nevertheless. Cold and calculator, Carson hides a deep sensitivity and an attachment to his brother, feelings that in The Sanctuary might be considered weaknesses, but that guide his actions nevertheless.

[…] him with a white-hot iron, made an example for everyone to see, while Amber cried in despair. Carson took care of him and helped him recover, and when he could come out of the infirmary, he had his […]